Great Western Coffee Shop

It seems that local papers are picking up on the Macnaulty Report's recommendations
 
Burnham Edition of Maidenhead Advertiser front page is closure of Burnham and Taplow booking offices.

I wonder if he factored in the lost revenue by ticketless travel against the cost of extra on train and RPI staff. Can't see where the savings are coming from.

The TOCs are also lobbying against all but the smallest stations....it's being stirred by the TSSA union trying to stir things up for their members

The Maidenhead version of the Tizer is saying Furze Platt, Cookham and Bourne End are at risk of closing, wonder if our local MP will champion the keeping them open like she did with sub Post Office when her party was in opposition.

It's all group F and most of Group E ticket offices.

Isn't this just a list of recommendations? Not a definite list. I think ATW have stated that they won't close any.

TBH, with the growth of online ticket sales, plus smart cards, the days of a ticket office will soon be over. The main loss will be for "booking ahead" and travel planning - but I do all that online now anyway...

All staff should be retained to ensure ticket gates are manned for longer, and for more ticket gates to be set up. (manual barriers are a waste of time and should be axed - these staff should be redeployed to gates too)

If they are to rely on TVMs then I can see trouble coming. I was at Hanborough on Tuesday waiting for the arrival of the evening stopper and decided to check whether Hanborough's TVM had been adapted to enable ticket collection facilities as is the case with the Charlbury TVM. I stood there for about 5 minutes tapping the screen, softly, hard, middle, side, top and bottom but would that screen recognise that I wanted to use it - No. However the stopper was a little late that evening and I wnt back to the machine some minutes later after I had checked the CIS screen and tapped the screen and lo and behold it responded immediately. Why? Incidentally, the machine does still not seem to have been adapted to enable you to collect internet purchased tickets months after I reported this inadequate FGW service.

Yes, they have: see http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=9448.msg97670#msg97670  ;)

 :-X
Sorry - I have 2 excuses:
*I don't check the South Wales boarss - I'm hardly ever there (and even less so on a train).
*I was on the new Chiltern Mainline on the 5th - so was buzzing. :P ::)